This article explains which moderation is available for moderating messages.

For a group's moderation settings, a group owner can select "Unmoderated," "Moderated," or "New Members." Below is a summary of what each of these settings mean, with recommendations for when to use each.


Unmoderated

• Impact: Any group member can post messages. Messages will appear without moderation.    
• Recommended use: This setting is recommended for groups where everyone knows each other, or the moderator knows everyone. For these groups, membership should be only by approval.

Moderated:

• Impact: Any group member can post messages. Messages will post once they have been approved by a moderator.
• Recommended use:
  
  • This is useful for groups where it's important for members to stay on topic
  • If a group has a history of spam or other email problems
  • If you use this setting, it's recommended that you have multiple moderators, so you can share the responsibility of approving messages.

New Members:

• Impact: Messages are only moderated for new users. When this setting is implemented, existing users can continue to post messages without moderation, and all members who join from then on are put into moderated status. The only way for a member to progress from new member status to unmoderated status is a manual change made by a moderator. To do this, the moderator must change an individual user's setting from "Moderated" to “Group Default," which will allow that user to post without moderation.    
• Recommended use: The "New Members" setting is a powerful tool for large groups because it enables all of the following:
  • Allows a group to start off as unmoderated (as all groups do).
  • Creates a transition once people start to join who the moderators don’t know, which means that only new members are moderated (while the trusted existing members, who are set to “Group Default” stay unmoderated.
  • The moderator then only has to turn off the individual moderation setting when a user actually post. Since most users lurk rather than post, it means the moderator never has to make any settings changes for most users, and it also diffuses the work over time, since not everyone posts at once.
  • If a problem arises, the moderators of the group can instantly place the entire group on moderation by changing the group’s default setting to “Moderated” rather than “New Members.” Later, if the moderator chooses to change the setting back, all previously unmoderated users will return to "unmoderated status" when the “New Members” setting is selected again.